It was a whirlwind year for the networking industry. From high-profile acquisitions and executive departures, to smaller vendors vying for a piece of the Cisco pie and three touch-screen smart phones facing off for touch-screen domination, 2008 had a lot to offer. Here are the 10 biggest networking stories of the year.

Solution providers are doing more SMB unified communications business with Cisco Systems than any other vendor, but the networking powerhouse wasn't the top choice when it came to scoring vendors in the new Channel Affinity Index.

Cisco rode high in 2008 with major product launches and big gains in enterprise telephony, but it also took some knocks, both from the economy and in court. ChannelWeb takes a look back at the networking vendor's year.

It's no surprise that Cisco Systems would garner a lot of solution provider attention in the SMB network security space. In new research by the Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED), Cisco was the top vendor in terms of the value of all SMB proposals through the channel. But when it came to rating vendors, Cisco finished a distant eighth in the new Channel Affinity Index.

By 2020, the mobile phone will the primary connection tool to the Internet and it will be so integrated into our daily lives that it will be difficult to imagine what life was like without one, according to new research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Cisco Systems was the go-to networking infrastructure vendor for the channel in 2008, and the vendor appeared to get stronger as the year wore on, according to new research by the Institute for Partner Education & Development.

When Sprint's XOHM unit unveiled its first-in-the-U.S., commercially supported WiMAX network—providing 4G speeds for wireless connectivity—the company didn't seem to spare any expense at its kick-off event for the media.

Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.